University of Helsinki
U-tain Wongsathit and his research group received a funding from the Office of the Thai Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation for the one-year project
Heritage of Suvarṇabhūmi: Scripts, Languages, and Religions Attested in Epigraphs of Mainland Suvarṇabhūmi.
The steering group at the Department of Oriental Languages, Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University includes: U-tain Wongsathit (principal investigator), Chatupohn Khotkanok, Kangvol Khatshima, Sombat Mangmeesuhksiri and Chatpisit Pachanee. The research is conducted in close collaboration with the partner team from the University of Helsinki including: Chingduang Yurayong, Andrew Logie, Sami Honkasalo and Erika Sandman.
The objectives are to collect inscriptions found in Mainland Southeast Asia areas, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, dating back to the periods between the 2nd century BCE and the 10th century CE. The texts will be interpreted and translated, while linguistic features and characteristics observed will be examined by methods and tools from comparative linguistics. The data will be analyหed from four different perspectives: 1) epigraphy, 2) geolinguistics, 3) philosophy, and 4) art history.
The expected results will shed light on early contact between polities in Mainland Southeast Asia, connecting insights from each humanities subfield represented in this project.